718 APPENDIX 



have told in other parts of this book how unsatisfactory we found it 

 both for man and dog feed because of the large amount of salt, the lack 

 of fat, and the high proportion of water. One pound of pemmican, if 

 approximately half is fat and half lean meat thoroughly desiccated, 

 gives a ration sufficient for a small dog of the Greenland type. It is 

 well known that the calorie value of fat per pound is more than double 

 that of any other food element. If a pound of pemmican which is half 

 fat is considered barely sufficient for a dog, it becomes clear that a 

 pound of pemmican nearly devoid of fat must be insufficient. On 

 other branches of the expedition we managed to use the pemmican by 

 feeding it half and half with blubber, which made it a satisfactory 

 ration except for the saltiness and the water. But on the way ashore 

 to Wrangel Island the dogs had been fed with only a pound of pemmi- 

 can and no fat, except for brief intervals when they lived on bear meat. 

 At these bear meat periods Hadley says they improved in strength and 

 condition. 



The pemmican was not only insufficient as a ration but led to 

 illness, both of men and dogs. This does not mean that there was any- 

 thing poisonous about it. It is merely an illustration of the generally 

 accepted fact that a diet consisting almost entirely of protein leads 

 to "protein poisoning," which is poisoning only in the sense that illness 

 results because the kidneys are overtaxed with trying to excrete the 

 excess of nitrates. This leads to nephritis or derangement of the kid- 

 neys, of which a common symptom is swelling of the body beginning 

 usually at the ankles. Although he was not exposed to this diet as 

 long as the rest, Bartlett developed these symptoms about the time he 

 got ashore in Siberia, having lived mainly on protein from the time 

 of leaving Shipwreck Camp till he got to the mainland where he was 

 able to travel from house to house, living on ordinary groceries and 

 native meats. 



My own party lived chiefly on protein for a few weeks the winter 

 of 1909-1910. An account of this experience and the early stages of 

 the sort of illness that is sure to develop is found in "My Life With 

 the Eskimo," pages 140 ff., with scattered references to the same subject 

 elsewhere in that book. Having to live mainly on protein (lean meat) 

 is an occasional experience of many Indian tribes in Canada and is 

 referred to by them and the Hudson's Bay men as "starvation," no 

 matter how much lean meat may be available. 



Hadley noted in Wrangel Island that the swelling and other 

 symptoms of illness developed most rapidly with those men who ate the 

 most pemmican, and in consequence the least seal or bear meat. The 

 situation was not thoroughly understood at the time even by Hadley, 

 and his own escape and that of the Eskimos was not due to a thorough 

 understanding but merely to the general notion that fresh food was 

 better than "canned stuff." Also it was a matter of taste. The Eski- 

 mos and Hadley preferred the fresh meat, and McKinlay seems to 



